First American Title Insurance

Back in July 2011, about 6 months ago from now, I sold my house in Santa Barbara, CA. We used First American Title's service. Even I sold my house at a loss, they still held my 10% of the sale price as withholding. They said I could get it back within 90 days. (They also told me that some people got it back within 40 days).

Well, since September 2011, I kept asking them about releasing the withholding, but they just kept saying that the IRS kept them on hold every time they talked with IRS. First American Title even asked me to do the work on my end, asking IRS to give a waiver for the withholding. I am very disappointed with First American Title and their people are not professional at all. I also think they did not file the right form to get my withholding back quickly. They have their negligence and they said "they could not do anything about it."

Do you want this type of service? You paid them the fees but they told you to do the things on your own. Why should I pay them at the first place?

According to GA law, title pawn can't charge more than interest amount past due date. So, let me tell you something. This company, if you are one day past due, charges for the entire month of interest. I think this is a rip off. Also, they don't have corporate or supervisors we can talk to about this. Please take this company out of business. Thanks.

We requested a payoff on May 20, 2010 good to 5/28/10 and we were told it would take 5-7 days. Today is June 8, 2010 and we just received the payoff. We tried again on 5/27/10, 6/1/10, 6/4/10, and 6/7/10 expressing the urgency of the situation. We were told on 6/1/10 we would have it in 1-2 days. It was extremely frustrating to deal with the times we were ignored completely. This resulted in having to hold the seller's funds after close of escrow for eleven (11) days. They were unable to move out of the property in a timely manner for the new buyer's (who had performed and closed) to move in. I have been in this business now for 30 years and have never had this difficulty before.

I was awarded a judgment of 42k. The debtor manage to obtain a 100% loan from wamu for $725k no, job, and no income. When I asked the title company they told me that the loan was secured by a deed of trust and the judgment was not needed to satisfy the loan. I have a separate document from the escrow company showing 7 different transactions making it look like I was paid; the final check was issued to the seller for the same amount.

A few months later the buyer foreclosed. This is what creates a bad economy and someone needs to be held responsible. The title company has an obligation to the lender, buyer and seller to ensure that everything is in compliance. They are not there to manipulate the judicial system so that people can benefit and commit fraud. A judgment was in place and was suppose to stop this loan from going through, instead the made the loan work and fed a few peoples pockets accept the judgment creditor whose was entitled to all this monies disposed to everyone involved.

A judgment that should have been paid at the time escalated to 65k now, 5 years since it was filed. The buyers foreclosed on this property. I want to hold either the title company or the bank responsible for letting this loan go through to benefit the seller and buyer. They have manipulated the judicial system to work in their favor and committed fraud. The title company does not have the power over the judicial system.

My brother-in-law and I have bought a few houses for investment purposes. We formed a LLC titled Oylsto LLC. We acquired a property in Belton Mo. in Jan 2005 along with a Owners Title Policy. In March 2006 we received a special tax statement from the city for $8,098.42. This was due to a lien that had been placed on the property. A special tax assessment was placed on this property 20 years ago and the former owner failed to pay. We did our own research on the property and located the lien.

Within the original assessment placed on record it stated "All such special tax bills so issued shall be due and payable 60 days after the date of issuance...and may be paid in installments on an annual basis for 20 years together with interest, all such tax bills to be a lien of said benefited property. We have written First American six times and correponded by phone about 20 times. The local underwriter even indicated that he thought they should pay it, but he didn't have any control over payments. Our reason to invest in a few rental houses were for the purpose of sending kids to college, but now we realize we are dealing with unethical people in this business. How can First American not honor a tile policy, for we thought that they were designed to protect home buyers.